Freedom

ARTICLES ABOUT FREEDOM BY DATE - PAGE 4

By David Alexander WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. military carried out freedom of navigation operations challenging the maritime claims of China, Iran and 10 other countries last year, asserting its transit rights in defiance of efforts to restrict passage, a Pentagon report said on Thursday. The Defense Department's annual Freedom of Navigation Report to Congress for the 2013 fiscal year showed the U.S. military targeted not only countries such as Iran, with whom it has no formal relations, but treaty allies such as the Philippines, too. The U.S. military conducted multiple operations targeting China over what Washington believes are "excessive" claims about its maritime boundaries and its effort to force foreign warships to obtain permission before peacefully transiting its territorial seas.

If Arizona legislators were being perfectly candid, they would have labeled their so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act precisely what it was, a "Right to Use Religion as an Excuse to Discriminate Against Gay Men and Lesbians Act. " Supporters insist the Arizona bill was not anti-gay. But what else do you call a bill that "protects" the right of businesses to discriminate against gay people, as long as businesses attribute their discrimination to their religious beliefs?

In the ideal scenario, the advance of democracy is simple and happy. A dictatorship falls, the people gain the right to choose their rulers, a modern constitution comes into being and a pluralistic civil society emerges. But in many places, it doesn't work out quite that way. Democracy is sometimes merely a detour between one oppressive government and another. That has been the spectacle in three countries that have been in the news lately: Egypt, Ukraine and Venezuela. Each one demonstrates that genuine democracy takes more than elections, even if the elections are free and fair.

By James Pomfret HONG KONG, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Thousands rallied outside Hong Kong's government headquarters on Sunday demanding the city's leader uphold media freedoms amid growing anger towards perceived behind-the-scenes intrusions on local media outlets. Tensions have been rising between forces backing democratic institutions in Hong Kong and China's Communist Party leaders as the city proceeds with political reforms that could lead to an unprecedented direct election for its next leader in 2017.

BEIJING, Feb 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed his support for online freedom in China during a meeting in Beijing with Chinese bloggers concerned about a crackdown by authorities on Internet discourse. Last year China's Communist Party renewed a heavy-handed campaign to control online interaction, threatening legal action against people whose perceived rumours on microblogs such as Sina Weibo are reposted more than 500 times or seen by more than 5,000 people.

Written and directed by veteran documentarian Stanley Nelson ("The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords"), " Freedom Summer " expertly combines archival footage and photos with contemporary interviews to recall the pivotal 10-week period in 1964 when hundreds of activists, black and white, worked together to register African-American voters in violently segregationist Mississippi. Airing on PBS in June to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the events, and certain to become a widely employed educational tool thereafter, Nelson's film is a well-shaped and powerful reminder of a time in recent American history when white supremacy was decisively and courageously undercut.